
Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) stock is trading lower on Friday amid reports indicating the e-commerce juggernaut and other major Chinese tech firms have slashed the prices of AI coding models to roughly one-fifth of what leading international rivals charge.
The companies aim to trade short-term profits for long-term developer loyalty and market dominance, YiCai reported on Friday, citing industry experts. On July 23, Alibaba Cloud launched its Qwen3-Coder model and immediately offered a 50% discount.